


Primero

by orphan_account



Series: Bleached Basuke [1]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Gen, Hollow!AU, Mild Gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-31
Updated: 2014-10-19
Packaged: 2017-12-30 22:29:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1024127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A lone Hollow wanders the lifeless desert plains of Hueco Mundo, in search of someone who could withstand their overly strong presence. The search is short and fruitless with death left behind in their path, trailing them like miasma. To satiate their ever growing solitude, the Hollow "splits" into two persons with shocks of blue hair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Birth

An excruciating pain.

A dark sky.

A feeling of loss.

Those three were most distinct in my first memories. 

At the beginning, I had rose and walked in all directions, any direction, with no clear destination in mind.

I could not tell if I was going in circles or treading on a path that lead to infinity. Either way, I didn't have the knowledge or ability to care.

Soon I had encountered others, who I had called "friends". They told me of what this place of endless darkness was called.

"Hueco Mundo," they said. It meant "Hollow World". It was fitting for a lifeless shadowed desert.

Wandering in groups, we observed others like us "hollows" interact. Unlike us, the outsiders had engaged in violence and tore at each other’s bodies, consuming their masked brethren. 

I had not understood. Were our "friends" supposed to act like so?

"No, no, we’re special!" they had gushed. There was still doubt, but I had believed them. After all, they were our "friends".

We had continued on, even as little by little, our "friends" breathed for the last time.

 

**xXx**

 

"--vives is deemed the strongest!"

"Hoorah!"

"Shut up, you idiot! **It** might hear us..." an unknown hissed.

"But it doesn't know any better though. Like a newborn."

"Like a newborn, but with immense power."

"Do ya think it was born like that?" one asked.

"There can be no way it could have," a third piped in.

"It's judgement is pretty dim, so it's alright to assume it wouldn't know if it was already dead, right?" another perked up.

"Once we consume more of the weaker **it** has unconsciously killed, only then will we have it as our meal. We will ascend from Adjuchas to the top class of Menos,” the apparent one in charge bit out, “the Vasto Lorde.”

What were these classes? They all had spoke of "Adjuchas" so thus I was one too? Who would they consume next? What did “dim” mean?

From their outbursts, they had planned on eating one stronger than they were.

Ah, but I didn’t care, as long as my "friends" accompanied me. If they wished to be stronger I could only comply as their friend. I trotted to the carved rock where my “friends” had told me to nap on, leaving my “friends” to their whispered conversation.

"...just make sure you keep your distance, or you will suffer the consequences," the head Adjucha warned, unheard by "it".

 

**xXx**

 

Eventually, all of my first "friends" had died.

Observing my "friends" mingle with one another, I decided to test out how it felt. Reaching out to a nearby "friend" I had touched them with a hand, as I had seen others do before.

He had screamed and shouted, watching as the spot of contact disintegrated and spread throughout his spiked body.

The nameless Hollow had died immediately. How strange, why only then did I realize our "friends" had dwindled in number, as if this sudden death had opened my eyes.

My "friends" had fled soon after, and I had observed from afar as they retreated to begin slaughter of our "friends" as they massacred their allies to become the strongest. They had finished each other off after several moonless nights.

And yet, no outside parties had interfered.

This memory was most memorable to me, as it made a lasting and unique first impression of myself and others.

The deaths of following “friends” were all the same. My presence overwhelmed every one of them, and soon they sensed the promise of death that trailed me like a shadow. None had bothered to befriend me, only aiming to devour.

There were more "foes" than "friends" and I was overcome with desolation. It was a foreign and painful feeling, to me who did not know many emotions.

_Why, why is it that I bring death to those I hope to become close with?_

 

_I am lonely. I want this this depthless feeling of solitude to_ end.

 

* * *

  

“Oi, why did you just split off from my body?”

“Likewise,” a monotonous voice replied.

“Tch. Whatever.”

The larger, darker of the two newly halved beings reached for a torn rag amongst the surrounding corpses. Wrapping it around his tan waist, he peered at the smaller figure crouched on the sand. Its appearance was strange, as the small Hollow was shaped with pale flesh and no unique features but for the signature Hollow hole in the center of its torso. The larger regarded the attached horned helmet it bore on its head, with the left eye covered. The other's light hair was most fascinating, and he remembered their previous one entity had never seen a color so vibrant in this dreary world. What was the color again? It resembled something Hueco Mundo did not have.

_Sky._

That couldn’t be right. After all, this sky was complete darkness. 

 _No, it wasn’t this expanse of lifeless emptiness; the_ sky _, the one of another more beautiful world._

“I would like to see it someday...” he murmured. He took notice that the one with the sky-colored hair was staring at him. _Its eye is the same too._

“What is it, small one?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I was wondering what I should call you, dark one,” it replied, a question apparent in its visible eye, though emotionless its face stayed.

“Call me? I think our ‘friends’ each had one of their own, back when we were one person,” he recalled. “Gyah, what was the word? I’m having trouble remembering.”

“I am certain it is called a ‘name’. It was used to identify one’s self and allow others to identify them,” it explained in the same quiet tone of voice.

“How does one decide on such a thing?” This level of thinking was not suited for the larger one.

Pausing, most likely to flip through memories, it slowly gave an uncertain answer, “It was not explained, but I assume that the decision on a name would come from something of their liking.”

Something of their liking, is it? He was just born; what would he have liked from these few moments he was just split in two? Searching for something of interest, his eyes eventually landed on the slighter one’s _blue_ hair. He had made his decision.

“I will be named....Aomine,” he announced, hoping to allow the still crouched Hollow to know the reason behind it.

“After the color of your hair, I presume, Aomine-kun?” it asked. _My hair is also blue, huh? I must appear vain in this person’s eyes._

“Nah, I just took a liking to the sound of it. Your hair is also blue, little one.”

“My body is about the same age as you, which would be a few minutes,” he deadpanned. “Do not assume I am weak merely because of my appearance, Aomine-kun.”

“I told you, my name is Aomine.”

“Of course, Aomine-kun.”

“Well, just call me whatever you like. It’s your turn now, little one," he insisted. "Who are you?”

Aomine had asked the wrong question. ‘ _What is your name?’_   he meant to say.

The eye of clear blue had turned back to gaze at the sand, where his shadow and Aomine’s crossed each other. Several moments passed, the helmeted naked boy still sitting and Aomine towering above him. With a gulp, he finally spoke, glancing up at Aomine, eye glinting and voice laced with certainty.

“I am Kuroko.”

Breaking into a bright smile, Aomine slapped Kuroko on his back and threw a rag over the boy Hollow. “Kuroko, that’s great! But if you’re going to stick with me, you need to be fully clothed. Isn’t that right, partner?”

“Ah, yes,” Kuroko agreed, wrapping the rag cloak around his pale shoulders. He couldn’t have said anything other than yes. The boy Hollow considered Aomine's tan figure, the other's smile still imprinted in his mind.

 _How dazzling this person’s smile is._ Though he appeared opposite of “bright” he seemed to be filled with light, something he knew he was not...He couldn’t allow this pure person to experience what was brewing inside of him. After all, he was probably the one that allowed Kuroko to “exist”.

_I will protect Aomine-kun’s beautiful soul from these dark feelings I now keep hidden in this body._

_That is the reason for my existence, surely._

_I want it to be._


	2. Name

Aomine was leisurely walking along side his companion Kuroko, with Hueco Mundo’s only moon and source of light illuminated behind them. They were silent; Kuroko characteristically quiet and Aomine deep in thought as they paused to rest on top of a dune.

“Hey, Kuroko, I’ve been thinking...” Aomine started.

“That’s not good, Aomine-kun. You might break something,” the smaller Hollow interrupted, his expression a mix of mock seriousness and worry.

“Oi, I’m serious this time!” he argued. “Anyway, do you remember the Hollow, Sakurai Ryou?”

Flipping through his memories for the name, he finally found one of such a person. Sakurai was a human shaped Hollow like them, but was more slender than Aomine but physically stronger than Kuroko. All Hollows were born with a “mask”, and his in particular was of a small row of teeth, placed on the left side of his head.

He was easy to remember. Sakurai was one of the few Hollows that had continued to live after meeting the blue haired pair. His most distinct (and admittedly over used) habit made him stand out as a person who apologized profusely for anything and nothing. When he apologized, his tentacles would come out and wriggle as a physical display of his anxiety. It was refreshing, seeing someone other than Aomine so energetic.

“Sakurai Ryou, the spineless Hollow who left us to save himself?” Kuroko asked, monotonously.

“...Yeah, that one,” Aomine confirmed, remembering Sakurai’s parting words.

“ _I’m so sorry Aomine-san, Kuroko-san. I have to leave you two. If I don’t, I think I might die! I’m so sorry. Please forgive me in the next life.  You can do whatever you want with me then. I’ll even let you; I’m that pathetic to leave you both behind.”_

With those last words of finality, he had sped off, all the while repeating sincere apologies. From a distance, you could see his tentacles curl in on themselves in guilt and regret, and he had disappeared permanently from their stunned eyes.

“I think he made the right decision. Leaving us, I mean. I didn’t plan on killing him though,” Aomine commented, thoughtfully. “In this life or the next, I wouldn’t dare.”

“Yes, though he acted weak, he was only following his instincts to survive. Eventually, he, too, would have perished along with our previous friends,” Kuroko reasoned, face crestfallen.

Peering at Kuroko’s shadowed expression, Aomine placed a large hand atop his companion's helmeted head, “Kuroko, don’t make such a sad face. Just be glad that he’s well and living somewhere in this barren place.”

“I know, but I can’t help feeling the loss after he left,” the boy Hollow sighed. Remembering something, he placed Aomine’s tan hand off his head to face him. “Also, why did you bring up Sakurai-san?”

“Oh, yeah! Haven’t you wondered why the past few Hollows we’ve met had two names? What’s up with that?” he wondered, thoroughly bemused. What would be the point in having two? It seemed difficult and a mouthful to say.

“Ah, I asked Momoi-san this once, before she left for her long journey across Hueco Mundo,” Kuroko mentioned. “In her quest for knowledge, she discovered many of the more intelligent Hollows had two names.”

 

**xXx**

 

“ _Kuroko-kun, you want to ask something of me? Of course, I’ll be glad to help! Here, sit on my back._

_Two names, is it? Well, from my data, most of the advanced and evolved Hollows have two._

_Apparently, they remember fragments of their human memories when they start evolving from Gillian to Adjuchas._

_The naming system for humans is that names are given by the people who give birth to them. The name consisted of two parts, family name first and personal name second.  I hear that in parts of the Human World, it’s the other way around. I prefer to use last/first._

_I remembered mine when I evolved too! It’s a rare case, to remember your whole name. Some Hollows just base theirs off of what they remember._

_But, I think Kuroko-kun and Ao-chan forgot because you were originally one person._

_You two are definitely special.”_

 

**xXx**

 

“That is what Momoi-san told me,” he finished.

“Ugh, that Satsuki, it’s Aomine, not ‘Ao-chan,’” Aomine complained. “Anyway, how about we name each other? We don’t know who the original was, and you could say we gave birth to each other.”

“Aomine-kun that is something I would rather not picture,” the smaller stated, cringing at the already forming image. “But, I agree.”

“Satsuki can be useful sometimes. I admit I may be special but I think she just wanted an excuse to tell you out loud,” he smirked. Satsuki took every chance to praise her beloved Kuroko.

“Momoi-san would kick you with her hind legs if she heard you,” said Hollow of interest reminded.

The pink haired informant was a Hollow in the form of a centaur hybrid, a female humanoid from her torso up and a four-legged hoofed animal below her waist. In their time together, Kuroko was allowed to sit on her back, because he couldn’t stand to physically strain himself for long distances. She was always delighted when he accepted her offers and would attempt to kick Aomine if he dared to sneak onto her. Half the time, she would miss her mark. Only half the time, though.

Aomine flinched at the reminder. The places where her hooves had hit his body tingled at the memories. Those times, he had wanted to know what it was like to ride a horse like in the Human World. He had heard of it from Satsuki herself.

_“But I’m not a horse, idiot Ao-chan! Only Kuroko-kun can...r-ride me...”_

She had blushed at what she had unconsciously let slip and had galloped away in embarrassment to leave Aomine in the dust. He wondered if all females were as star-eyed as Satsuki. It looked like a pain, having to be infatuated with someone. The tan Hollow wasn’t sure if Kuroko was aware of her crush and decided to stay silent or was actually oblivious to her poorly concealed attempts of hiding it. Aomine could never tell what the other was thinking behind his emotionless mask. It was unnerving sometimes, but it was a part of his friend. If Kuroko didn’t want to talk, he had to accept it.

“So can I name you, Kuroko? I have an idea of one for you,” he asked, eager to name his companion.

“Certainly, Aomine-kun.”

He thought for a moment, nodded to himself, and spoke. “A perfect name for you...would be Tetsuya. It’s kind of long, so I’ll stick to calling you Tetsu.”

Kuroko was not a person to relate with weakness. Aomine always noticed his companion’s persistence in keeping up with his longer and stronger strides, when he really was on the verge of collapsing. His determination practically beamed when he comforted and pulled Aomine out from his sorrow over their friends’ deaths. The boy Hollow felt the same for them, he knew, but he constantly insisted to the mentally weaker dark haired Hollow, somewhere out there were beings stronger than they. The hope he had in the half promise was enough to spur him forward. His sole companion’s—no— _friend_ ’s resolve was as strong as the human world substance iron, Aomine thought. If the will of his Tetsu could be brought to substance, it would be thus.

 _Kuroko Tetsuya._  It had a comfortable and nostalgic feeling to it, strangely. Kuroko could imagine introducing himself with this name, and he felt he almost could, in a different scenario.

He then recalled the rest of his and Momoi’s conversation after she informed him about the two name customs.

 

**xXx**

 

_“There’s still more I think you will find interesting, Kuroko-kun. From various sources, I heard in a certain island country in the Human World that speaking the personal name of someone would cause feelings of closeness._

_If it’s said by someone you don’t know it will be uncomfortable and offensive. In an appropriate setting with the person you like or have romantic feelings for, it will give them feelings of happiness._

_It is a strange custom, to have such feelings just because of a name. It sounds nice.”_

_Her voice had dropped to a soft murmur, and Kuroko had to lean closer into her humanoid back to hear bits of her next words. His movement caused her to shift uncomfortably on her hooves, and he wondered if he was becoming heavy from sitting on the dorsal part of her for so long._

_“I hope one day you will call me ‘Satsuki’, like that big Aho-mine.”_

“ _Of course,”_   _he had assured her, knowing eventually he would resort to calling her Satsuki in the distant future. He could not easily accept being informal with her as Aomine did so gracelessly, so he would respectfully add an honorific for his own sake._

_He had decided to relieve his weight off her back immediately, and he thanked her for their conversation. It might have been Kuroko’s imagination glimpsing the pink tint to her cheeks, or the movement of her lips forming a half confession he couldn’t catch. He was too concentrated on thinking up a new technique to wake up the napping “big idiot” when their rest period had ended._

_“It will be different coming from Kuroko-kun. I wouldn’t mind listening to you say my name.”_

**xXx**

 

He wanted to test out this theory Momoi gave him. Can one name really cause such feelings in a person? Kuroko liked Aomine, so he was the perfect person to help test it out.

“Aomine-kun, what did you call me? I’m afraid I did not hear the first part,” he gave a white lie, pretending his ignorance.

“What was your mind somewhere else?” Aomine was surprised. Kuroko was always focused and attentive. They had been walking for a while, so fatigue would have made him listless. “Fine. I’ll repeat your new name.” He inhaled to clearly pronounce his friend’s newly created name to the small expanse of land.

“Tetsuya.”

Kuroko blinked. He was prepared to feel something, but what he felt right then was peculiar. It was not the feeling Momoi had once described as “love”, which would make your liked/loved person the only person you saw, like an alternate version of tunnel-vision. “Tetsuya” sounded right, coming from Aomine. What he felt, at that moment was gratitude, or an emotion akin to it. He guessed the name theory was incorrect, albeit regretfully.

“Thank you, Aomine-kun,” he whispered. “I will treasure it, this name you have given me.”

Scratching himself behind his head, Aomine smugly replied, “Well, of course, Tetsu. I hope you can think one up for me too?” He was anxious to hear what his friend would think up for him.

“Naming Aomine-kun will be easy,” Kuroko admitted. “I bestow upon Aomine-kun the name ‘Daiki’.”

“Aomine Daiki,” he drawled out. The taller Hollow repeated it several more times, until Kuroko instructed him to stop.

“Since it’s from Tetsu, I’ll treasure it, too,” Aomine vowed. “Do you think Satsuki will stop calling me ‘Ao-chan’, if we ever meet her again?”

“Knowing her quirk, Momoi-san will resort to calling you something along the lines of ‘Dai-chan’.”

“You’re right, she would. Ah, Tetsu? Will you be calling me ‘Daiki’ anytime soon? Since it’s Tetsu, you would say something proper like ‘Daiki-kun’,” Aomine asked, curiously. It seemed he had not heard of the name custom of the human world island country, sleeping like a rock when Momoi was explaining it.

Standing to brush off the sand on his clothing, Kuroko answered with a small smile that warmed his single sky colored eye, “Aomine-kun is Aomine-kun.”

So he wasn’t going to change a thing. The Kuroko today was strange from other days, Aomine thought. First, he wasn’t paying attention to most of what Aomine was saying, and now he transformed from his poker face to smiling?

On second thought, he had never seen Kuroko smile in their time together. Small, may it be, but it was a nice change to see on his partner’s usually stoic face. Aomine mentally promised he would get Kuroko to laugh and smile more often.

It was all he could do, hope; for himself and Tetsu.


	3. Discovery

_Aomine ran across a space filled with blinding lights, shoes squeaking on the polished floor. An indistinct noise roared around him, a sound he recognized as spectators cheering in a crowd._

_There were opponents around him, but he surpassed them easily. He only had eyes for what was across the space. He had to put it in there, whatever it was. But, Aomine didn’t have it in his possession. Someone only needed to pass it to him or he could steal it—_

_“Aomine-kun.”_

_The whispered voice sounded monotonous and male._

_“Did you forget the reason why you started...?”_

_It didn’t matter. What was important was shooting something into the basket; he didn’t exactly know_ what _._

_“I can tell you the reason why you remain here in this endless game of chance.”_

_Could he really? Did he know him from somewhere?_

  _“Yes, really, Aomine-kun.” Ignoring his second question, the source of the voice emerged to show a dark outline of a person with a glowing eye the color of ice. They took another step out into the light, revealing a pale uniformed boy, his jersey donning a strangely startling number eleven. Face still obscured, he stretched a splayed hand toward Aomine. Within his palm materialized a round and familiar orange object._

_His one blue orb glanced down at it and back to him, gesturing with his eye to take it._

_Seeing it sparked an emotion inside of Aomine, and he stepped forward to take it, only to pass through it and the boy into the darkness in which he came from. He was beginning to feel the nausea from the loss of solid ground and he fleetingly glimpsed the other’s lips form a pair of words._

_“...unto death, Aomine-kun. After all, we never really had the chance to—”_

 

* * *

 

Aomine woke with a start, immediately wincing at the dull ache pulsing in the center of his sternum. His body had minor scrapes that were probably more serious before but had healed themselves while he was unconscious. He rubbed at his mask, an animal’s bottom jaw.

The dark haired Hollow tried to remember his dream. He knew it was something important, his mind urging him to remember it right away, but another thought over took the others.

It all came back in a rush; Tetsu was not with him.

The pain hurt even more knowing they weren’t together.

He recalled the events before he passed out from exhaustion and the dark deed he had done in panic after discovering he was alone.

How could he tell his friend what he had done?

Aomine had slaughtered potentially strong friends, Menos who had still yet to develop a personality. How ashamed his pacifist partner Tetsu would think of Aomine.

The navy haired Hollow didn’t have many memories of when he and Kuroko were one, but he definitely remembered the agony he felt after his sudden happenings. Satsuki would say that he had recognized the accompanied pain of evolving. The technical stuff she spoke of didn’t matter to him, only the word “evolving” caused fear to run through his body.

Aomine hated the idea of himself evolving, when Kuroko could barely keep up with his casual stride on an uneventful and slow day. It was gradual, but the darker Hollow noticed though Kuroko was his other part, he was much weaker. Evolution should be happening to his best friend, not him, but the more he thought about it, his horn-helmed companion was able to stay within Aomine’s much denser reiatsu. He thought of the coexistence of the earth and the moon, and the force that kept them separate and untouched; it was a similarity he would keep in mind.

He needed to be reunited with Kuroko soon. Aomine didn’t know how long the smaller Hollow would survive alone in a forest of colossal mindless predators.

 _It’s precisely because you_ killed _on purpose that you’re evolving Ahomine,_ a sinister voice snarled.

_Can’t you see? You could unconsciously kill your precious Tetsu too._

_You, yourself, are the same as these hateful monsters—_

Aomine quickly shoved the black thoughts back to the recesses of his head. At unguarded moments when he was away from the pale boy Hollow, his mind would wander in a negative direction, and such thoughts would surface. He would practically run back to his companion, _companions_ if they were with Momoi, and they would show their disbelief at his unusual behavior. For Kuroko, a miniscule widening of his sky blue eye would confirm his surprise, and for the female centaur, a nagging comment on how unexpectedly fast his usual sloth self moved.

If the navy-haired Hollow could find Tetsu, then he would soon feel normal again. Being around him put Aomine at ease, he believed. He always assumed it was the comfort of being in the presence of someone you cared for.

He then recalled a conversation he had with the one eyed Hollow, at a time before they had met Sakurai and Momoi and still had one name.

 

**xXx**

  

_“Being together is much more satisfying than being alone, is it not Aomine-kun?”_

_“Is it? To be honest, I don’t mind being alone,” Aomine had quickly responded, startled by his traveling companion’s sudden question. They had been walking for some time and he minded Kuroko didn’t feel like making conversation yet. Though, his near transparent presence and blunt questions still needed time for him to adjust to._

_“Is that so...,” Kuroko had murmured with a raised eyebrow. Aomine had noticed the slight change of tone in his usual quiet voice, as if he didn’t believe him. The smaller was right to not believe his words, but he didn’t want to have Kuroko believe that Aomine needed to depend or be with someone like a child to his mother._

_He didn’t want to be viewed as weak to his only friend. How hypocritical of him._

_“Then, you would not feel lonely if I decided to disappear from your side right now?”_

_Aomine paused. His large hands were frozen behind his dark blue head where before they were interlocked casually. After Kuroko's loaded question, they were clenching and unclenching, and he soon let them fall helplessly at his side. His companion had a talent of prodding him with particular questions he would rather not answer, but did anyway. Their silence could last for days._

_This time, Aomine could detect the multiple meanings implied into one simple question. It was Kuroko’s way of saving energy and words. Like him, the tan Hollow had a way of answering them in a simple way too, but with more thought to his answer._

_“You don’t care enough about me?”_

_Of course he cared._

_“Do you really want to be alone again?”_

_Sure._

_“You’re lying aren’t you?”_

_...Yeah._

_“Do you want me to feel lonely too?”_

_No. That he couldn’t bear. He himself could bear it, being alone._

_But Kuroko, he wasn’t strong enough to withstand it. However he imagined his weaker friend on his own, he could see the worst situations happen._

_His lone fragile figure wandering the desert dunes, falling down from fatigue, no one by his side to help him stand, struggling to his knees, collapsing from the effort--_

_This, he would not allow to become reality, the Hollow determined._

_“Kuroko,”  he responded. While Aomine had succumbed into his thoughts to think of an appropriate response, the horned Hollow had been observing him, patiently. He genuinely seemed curious about his answer, even if he appeared a bit too forlorn. Aomine saw no deception or hidden intention in his piercing blue eye, only trust and expectation._

_He turned to fully face Kuroko, his first true friend in Hueco Mundo, and they stared at each other for several moments. Dark azure and tan to fair ice and pale, they were two sides of the moon. If Aomine had a heart, he would have heard it beat as time ticked by slowly._

_Aomine had then raised a hand and ruffled the soft powder blue hair peeping out from the back of the boy Hollow’s nape. Kuroko had widened his eye, his face transitioning into bemusement at the other Hollow’s affectionate action. He had only smiled in return, hoping his friend would interpret the message he was conveying correctly. Aomine was not a person of words._

_The one eyed Hollow had continued to search his smiling face, and after a solid few minutes, he made an expression of satisfaction. Closing his eye with a nod and closed mouthed approval, he had brushed off the calloused fingers making a mess of his hair._

_“Unlike me, Aomine-kun, some may not know what you mean with just your actions,”  he had chided Aomine, attempting to straighten the random strands with little success._

_He had laughed heartily, enjoying the scene of his normally stoic friend struggling with something as mundane as his own hair._

_“Yeah, I get it. I’m just glad that you understand Kuroko.”_

 

**xXx**

 

He and Kuroko had grown closer from that point and many of their memories blended together to form an image resembling happiness. But, the smaller Hollow’s question had never been forgotten. There was always the question of whether solitude was an option either could take at anytime.

Aomine wondered if Kuroko would prefer to leave Aomine and make other friends. His reiatsu was the prime cause of most of their deaths, anyway.

As if reading his mind, Kuroko would call his full name without his usual honorific, and smile assuringly. His smiles were memories a person had to keep note of, with how heartwarming they were. Momoi probably fell for them at first sight, making Aomine slightly jealous that someone other than him could see such a rare sight.

Aomine needed his best friend’s assurance the most, after all.

Looking around, he discovered that the surrounding area was filled with crystallized “trees”. There was only one place in Hueco Mundo growing these unique “trees”: The Forest of Menos. It would explain why he had seen so many Gillian-class in one spot.

Last he recalled, the Forest was located _underground_. Aomine had no memory of him and Kuroko traveling into the entrance of the forest of colossal giants. Glancing above toward the caved ceiling, he could barely spot several dark holes dotting it, revealing specks of moonlight.

They must have fallen through from the surface and crashed to the bottom.

A whining noise reverberated through his head when he tried to remember what happened before their fall. He felt they were escaping from something he deemed “dangerous”, the first time he ever had in their large amount of time together. He wasn’t worried about himself, but rather his friend, sensing the killing intent directed towards him.

He couldn’t dwell on the past too much, though. Aomine was only certain of the alarming sense of foreboding as he compared the state of his body from the fall to the state he imagined of the more fragile and weak one-eyed Hollow.

Aomine made a dash into the forest of quartz and crystal in search for his friend, tripping and scraping himself as he went. He neither noticed pieces of his Hollow mask at his collarbone crack and disintegrate away or the gray feline eyes that followed his silhouette from within the shadows.


	4. Discovery Part 2

_Kuroko watched from the sidelines as Aomine ran across the court, easily passing by the other players who were desperately attempting to block him. As the tan blue haired man continued to break their defenses, the light haired boy could see the morale of the opposing team drastically deflate._

_He determined that he would stop the match at that moment to hide their expressions from his light’s eyes. Aomine did not need to see this again._

_His light was currently searching for a teammate to pass him the ball, but Kuroko saw he was the only person on the team. Aomine was a solo player. He could visibly see the horror dawning on his friend’s face. Kuroko hoped to distract Aomine from making the realization he would have made from the “first time”._

_“Aomine-kun,”_ _he called out._ “ _Did you forget the reason why you started-?”_

_His last words were oddly blocked out by even his own ears, yet he continued on, not caring about the contents of his words. The question had spilled from his mouth unintentionally, but it had at least distracted the larger man, if only for a moment. He could see Aomine quickly deem Kuroko’s question as unimportant in the face of searching for a ball. He would try again._

_“I can tell you the reason why you remain here in this endless game of chance.”_

_Aomine raised a dark slim eyebrow and tilted his head in question. “Really? Who are you?” the gesture asked. Kuroko remembered he was still hidden in the sidelines and took a step out from the comforting shadows. His partner’s azure gaze rested on his number 11 uniform, the English letters for SEIRIN imprinted on them, but he could see no recognition alight in his eyes. He still did not realize who he was._

_“Yes, really, Aomine-kun.”_

_Kuroko felt that there was only a sliver of time remaining, and he did not want to waste it explaining his identity to the jersey-clad man. He opened a pale hand toward his long time friend and he imagined a ball appropriate for the sport he was playing, an orange object._

_A fire lit in Aomine’s eyes then, and he stretched a calloused hand toward the ball. Seeing the expression smoldering in his friend’s eyes, the pale boy had the urge to speak what he had wanted to say to his first light for the longest time, maybe even before his last moments._

_Fixing his gaze to Aomine’s, he noticed his arm was fading away. The court was also losing its physical structure and was now collapsing. He had to make his words short and fast._

_“...unto death, Aomine-kun. After all, we never really had the chance to...”_

_Kuroko mouthed words but only managed half of his intended speech before Aomine passed through him and into the concluding darkness._

_He made to raise his hand in a gesture reserved only for Aomine and a select few others, but even it disappeared along with the foreboding realization everything he’d done—everything he worked so hard to rebuild—was a lie._

 

* * *

 

Kuroko resurfaced from his consciousness slowly, trying to groggily remember the last bits of his dream. There was Aomine, in a dark uniform competing against others with an orange object. Kuroko was also present, speaking to him and attempting to prevent something “disastrous” from happening.

The drowsiness from his sleep disappeared once he felt the pounding in the side of his head. He discovered bruises and cuts scattered across his body, but no fatal wounds. The only alarming injury he seemed to have was probably the constant aching near his head. He carefully reached up to feel the top of his helm and found a horn had broken off.

No, rather than broken, it seemed to have been sliced off by something, or someone. The stump felt smooth rather than jagged.

Kuroko and Aomine were escaping from an unknown creature Aomine had told him was a threat, and Kuroko had believed him. He had never witnessed such a terrified expression cross his partner’s face before, and he did not wish to see it again. He obliged willingly when the larger Hollow grabbed his hand and fled at a speed his muscles would pay for later.

They had run until a sinkhole had appeared and swallowed them into the depths of the Forest of Menos. The creature was just on their heels before attempting to behead Kuroko as he fell, resulting in his sliced horn. Before he had blacked out from impact of the long descent, Kuroko faintly sensed the powerful presence of the creature’s reiatsu above and the loss of Aomine’s clammy hand in his.

He regretted letting go, because they were split up in an unfamiliar area swarming with Hollows, the dangerous threat, and the unknown. Kuroko did not want his companion to worry on his behalf, and he could sense Aomine was awake, confused, and flustered some distance away.

" _Tetsu._ "

His name sounded in his mind in a exhausted whisper, and Kuroko knew Aomine was calling, searching for him.

The secret ability of Kuroko’s wasn’t beneficial to Aomine, with it being active without his knowledge. Kuroko had developed it after he had first met Aomine - naked, nameless, young, and pure - with no name to call himself. Perhaps it had appeared because of the constant worry he felt toward his friend since the beginning, and his growing desire to shoulder the burden his powerful partner carried.

It was a mysterious and dark power, but he couldn’t leave it alone. Kuroko learned to find the tan Hollow when he napped or ran off in bouts of anger. Rarely, he would find Aomine, face blank and blood splattered, surrounded in the aftermath of one of his happenings. Fairly bloody and traumatizing scenes like those would appear randomly as a vision to Kuroko, and once he inquired Aomine on his whereabouts, the other man would tilt his head in confusion.

Several times after the same thing had happened, Kuroko concluded Aomine had amnesia, and his missing memories were transferred into himself. It was exactly what Kuroko had wanted, to shoulder some of Aomine’s burden, even if he woke up screaming from the nightmares of rotting flesh and the blood on his hands from the deaths he knew he hadn’t committed.

Sometimes, when he felt drained and unusually tired, Kuroko wished he didn’t have this power, because reliving the memories were so painful. Aomine was always concerned, like the good friend he was.

He wished he could tell Aomine about it, knowing he would do the same in his situation, but something held him back. Kuroko wanted to allow himself to acknowledge he could share anything with his friend and partner, no matter what. He wanted acknowledgement that he was alive and a true friend to Aomine.

 _'But that’s not what a shadow does,'_  a familiar mocking voice mentally cut in. A sneer could be heard within the quiet yet malicious tone. _'You’re not supposed to be recognized by the host, you conniving parasite._ '

Kuroko quelled it with the thought of being hit in the shins by Momoi’s notorious kicks. Handling “them” was a common chore Kuroko didn’t necessarily want deal with, but “they” were a result of absorbing Aomine’s negative energy, which were the darkest parts of the dark-skinned Hollow’s personality and memories. 

 _Why are you talking about yourself, Chihiro?_ Kuroko sassily thought back.

At one point, Kuroko had decided to name him Shiroko, but it decided the name was too cheap. "Chihiro" it renamed itself.

He would have thought further on the resulting “child” born between his and Aomine’s clashing energies, but the latter’s sudden burst in speed and rise in anxiety caught his attention. Kuroko could feel the distance between them grow smaller and the emotions increase in intensity once again.

_Snap!_

Kuroko whirled his body toward the direction of the sound and winced at the sudden movement, nearly forgetting about his injuries. He had been so concentrated on Aomine’s mental hysteria that he hadn’t noticed something, no, someone, approach. It was too late to flee.

A chuckle resembling a growl came from the shadows of a thick crystal trunk, and a gray creature on all fours emerged. Immediately, the one-eyed Hollow recognized the destructive aura resonating from the animalistic creature as the one chasing them before they had fallen. A hole in through its abdomen and back revealed his signature as a fellow Hollow.

“You finally noticed my presence, little gazelle. Figured you were too out of it to put up a fight, so I gave you some time to clear your head,” the animal-like Hollow said as it assessed him. “Thank me for my generosity.”

It paced back and forth, a predator contemplating its prey before it executed the final blow. The act was very feline, and Kuroko thought the Hollow resembled the human world panther, a carnivorous big cat of power.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a familiar object, smooth and white, out of his reach. If Kuroko could distract the threat before him, then maybe he could escape while he could.

Kuroko steeled his resolve and cleared all expression from his face in preparation for what he was about to do. If his plan worked, then he would be able to meet Aomine halfway.

He brought his gaze to the large panther’s and addressed him. “What is your name?”

It narrowed its gaze to stormy gray slits and they flickered a luminescent green. It didn’t open its maw as he expected it to, but rumbled out a response from deep within its chest. “I am called Haizaki Shougo. Since you were polite enough to ask for my name I’ll offer you a deal.”

“Of what kind, Haizaki-san?”

Keep eye contact with the target. Refrain from blinking. Distract the target with an impenetrable stare.

“Well, I was thinking instead of killing you, I would eat a chunk out of you, as a reminder that you were spared by me, your oh so kind king.”

Take a deep breath. Loosen the tension in your muscles—

“Of course, I’ll be deciding which part to devour. Should I just start dieting and eating a finger? Or get juicy with a thigh?” Haizaki sent a gluttonous glare his way, and tensed as he witnessed Kuroko disappear right before his eyes.

_—and action._

The other Hollow roared, swinging his head to try to find his prey among the trees when the small Hollow was in view a moment ago. Kuroko used the short allotted time to scoop up his decapitated horn and sneak close.

Just as he aimed for one of the panther’s eyes, his wrist was grabbed suddenly, and the boy Hollow glanced up from his hand to the one who stopped him without noticing his presence.

A person in a loose black garb wielded a sheathed weapon stood above him, face obscured by the moonlight and the hood they wore. The sight reminded him of the mythical being who came to you at the end of your life, cloaked in darkness and called Death.

Maybe his time in Hueco Mundo was drawing to a close. Or maybe not.

The person in black leaned to whisper a string of words that would echo and sleep within Kuroko’s soul for the longest time, even longer than the fleeting taste of hard-earned victory and the memory of ambiguous admiration.

“I’ll save you this time, Kuroko.”

This time?

Before he could respond to the promised oath, he gasped as a blow was delivered to his solar plexus and he collapsed into waiting arms. Kuroko fleetingly thought he had enough with being knocked out and having other people saving him instead.

The last thing Kuroko saw before succumbing to unconsciousness was the assuring smile of the blade-wielding person, the determined set of their shoulders they put forth while drawing their sheathed weapon to face Haizaki, and having a sense of déjà vu his current scenario had happened once before.

Honestly, Kuroko was just about done with familiar dreams and memories.

The other persona within him agreed.

 

* * *

 

The person set down the unconscious figure of the blue haired boy - now a Hollow, they reminded - at a far, safer distance from the Adjuchas level Hollow in the clearing.

Who would have thought that they would meet in Hueco Mundo of all places? Was the world really so small?

The figure quickly used Shunpo to return to where the panther Hollow looked furious, powerful, and ready to kill.

“Hey,” they called out to it, “I don’t think you’re going to find him anywhere!”

The Hollow turned its cat-like form to glare at them. “And who are you?” it snapped angrily.

“Who am I?” they replied in mock wonder.

The figure in black removed their hood to reveal a man with short brown hair. They unclasped their dark cloak to show the black kimono underneath, a noticeable badge worn on the billowing sleeve of their upper arm and a sheathed sword at their hip.

The Hollow’s feline ears twitched in alarm. “You’re one of those Shinigami!”

The brunet grinned at the Hollow’s realization. “I’m glad you know of us! So, you certainly must know what comes next...right?”


	5. Change

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this chapter in my drafts for a while and finally decided to publish it. My beta is kind of on vacation right now, so most of the stuff I'm publishing will have a few errors here and there.

"What the hell?!" Aomine exclaimed.

"We must eat you now, Hollow-that-is-not-quite-hollow."

"Your corpse will greatly help us evolve, ganguro!"

"Hey, everyone, just relax, will ya? This guy doesn't seem to wanna be eaten by us right now. Also, Susa, it's really troublesome if you announce our intentions right at the start."

"I'm sorry, senpai!" a voice apologized.

"I wasn't talkin' to ya, Sakurai," the Hollow with the lilted accent said.

Aomine looked on, incredulous, as the titanic group of Menos of Adjuchas-class and a surprise person continued to bicker and block his path to Tetsu. Earlier, he had been sprinting and using his ability to travel through dimensions, Sonído, to find his way to his friend's side.

The dark-haired Hollow had been careless in his hurry, to use this ability when he had just grasped the concepts of it from Satsuki, and in an environment lurking with Hollows such as the ones before him. Aomine was thoroughly surprised to see Sakurai among the them, though. He sent a questioning look toward the tentacled Adjucha, but was greeted with a nervous shake of the head.

_Later._

The implication of "later" was if he lived long enough to hear an explanation. None of the group looked keen to release him, or keep him alive. It was no matter to him, since he and Tetsu had experienced many similar situations with Hollows who threatened to kill them. Aomine's only hesitations were hurting Sakurai, who appeared to be enjoying himself with his new found companions, and the thin, bony Hollow watching him through the slits in its jousting helmet-like mask.

"I don't care if it resembles a human; I just want another one to add to the thousands I ate. Looking at how much he resembles the Shark of the mountains, we probably stumbled upon a big fish," the Adjucha with the bulky shoulders and fists laughed at his own joke. "Ha, you get it? Because—"

"Wakamatsu, I don't think jokes will work on killing your next target, ya know? Humor sounds kinda deadbeat and forced from you." The Hollow with the sharpened horns and accent interrupted and, after a pause, chuckled to himself. "On second thought, why don't ya make a few more? Your terrible sense of humor will surely 'knock 'em dead.'"

"Alright, fine! I won't try anything, as soon as you stop making those half-assed puns, Imayoshi," he grumbled. "Just don't get as bad as the infamous Eagle of Seirin."

"What, that Shinigami? His reputation has even reached your ears, huh."

The first comment from the one named Wakamatsu alarmed him. The blue-haired pair were searching for others like themselves, and the "Shark" they spoke of seemed to be regarded on a high enough level to be considered a "big fish" among Hollows. Looking for it was their only chance of seeking a way out of their current dilemma.

He thought over his current situation with around 4 Hollows nearly twice his size ready to pummel him, and one secondary friend he did not want to hurt. Better to go the polite non-violent way of asking for information.

"Hey, you shit eaters."

Aomine internally applaud himself for being so unreasonably nice to the weaker Hollows, who were more like unpopular and gossipy uncles than killers capable of wiping out hundreds of Hollows.

"What was that you said," someone replied in anger.

Before he could get a good look at the person who spoke, Aomine leaped and tore out a bloody chunk of the nearest Adjucha, which was unfortunately Sakurai, with his teeth that had elongated on their own.

"Huh?!" the tentacled Hollow cried out. Sakurai writhed to look at the bitten wound and his eyes widened to reveal shock and tears. "I'm so sorry, Aomine-san!"

"Bastard, you dare eat our comrade!" Wakamatsu yelled in rage. He stepped forward, menacingly waving his large fists for retaliation.

"Wait, Wakamatsu. Is this your 'Aomine-san', Sakurai? Does he always bite you on sight?" asked Susa, the only Gillian-class Menos of the group.

"No, I must have done something wrong...um, but please don't provoke Aomine-san any more."

"And why is that?" the bony Hollow inquired through his mask, breaking his silence.

The timid Hollow squirmed and wrapped his tentacles inward to hide his wounded appendage, and nervously stammered, "U-uh, he might accidentally kill us, Harasawa-sensei?"

Thank Sakurai, for warning them in his stead. He had never intentionally eaten another Hollow before, and his teeth sharpening and growing in size surprised Aomine just as much as it did to the Adjucha group. There was a chance he could do more damage on purpose than unintentionally, but he'd rather not try it out again.

Aomine had almost forgotten the reason why he had acted so impulsively, if not for the fact his friend's blood was spilling from the corners of his mouth. He should have been glad he only injured the skittish Hollow, but he felt anger at his actions besides.

His teeth retracted back to wherever they had hid before then. He swallowed and swept his tongue over his blood-splattered lips and cringed in disgust. The taste of another Hollow's flesh and blood was bland and underwhelming.

 _I better tell Tetsu about this once it's over_ , he thought. He had no doubt he would win over the others, but it would come with a challenge, judging from their experience of eating thousands of Hollows.

To make it quick as possible, he had to defeat them all in one powerful kill, Sakurai included, to hasten his search in finding his companion. Tetsu had more priority than the Adjucha, Aomine had decided long ago.

He prepared to defend and fight his way like he did to the ordinary Gillian Menos before, but "Harasawa-sensei" must have sensed his determination and killing intent.

"So, we've found our prodigious king, then?" Harasawa asked the other Hollows.

The tan Hollow turned to face Harasawa, guard on high alert, as he took in his thin and skeletal form. Who was he referring to? The bony guy could be only talking about him.

"We have heard much about you, Aomine," Harasawa said, tone filled with authority. "Sakurai has told us much about your power and how close to a true 'king' you resemble. We tread on a similar path."

Aomine narrowed his eyes. "How are our paths the same?" he growled. He glared at each member of the Hollow hunting group. "You all feel like you would crumble to dust if I seriously decided to destroy your party."

Sakurai trembled in his peripheral vision, and he faintly regretted making a threat against his friend's comrades. But, he was also feeling impatient; their conversation was wasting time.

"No, you misunderstand. We are indeed similar, but not the same. While you aim to be less strong by searching for the stronger, we aim to  _be_  stronger," the Adjucha smoothly explained. "That is all the more reason to be taken under your leadership, as one of the strongest. Your existence is our ideal image of strength."

He ended his praise there and proceeded to kneel before Aomine, skeletal limbs and all. The others followed suit. Wakamatsu bowed grudgingly and Sakurai in relief. The rest simply obeyed. Harasawa appeared to be the boss of the group, to be called "sensei" by Sakurai.

"Everyone, you can't just..."

In the past, he had weaklings who clung to him in hopes of protection, but a  _fan club_? It was flattering, but he feared they would end up like the others, all dead and bones, and in Harasawa's case, just dead. Aomine planned on telling them to go declare some other unlucky Hollow as their king, like the Shark, but he considered the pros of allying with them.

"Fine, you can call me your king, but don't be surprised if you die along the way," Aomine reluctantly agreed. "Also, don't talk to me about my strength, got it? It's a taboo topic."

They nodded and made way for him as he sped through the Forest to continue his search. He could sense their reiatsu following him from a distance. Aomine simultaneously thought and teleported through dimensions on his decision to keep his newly appointed fan club as an insurance of Tetsu's safety.

Yes, they had eaten at least a thousand Hollows each, allowing them enough evolution to be deemed as powerful allies. They could protect Tetsu if he wasn't there. The uses of their presence could be used to his advantage. He could sacrifice any of them in the place of Tetsu, if they really worshiped him so. If they endangered his friend, they would be dealt with accordingly. Aomine would...utterly destroy them if any one hurt him.

Aomine could not, would not forgive it.

His vision temporarily turned a dark hazy blue, and his mind led to the simple and terrifying thought of destruction of everything existing and substantial, in order to clear away the solitude that gnawed at him like a dog to a bone, day by day, night by night, and every moment he would have breathed, if Hollows were granted the gift of life and warm, flowing blood.

He wasn't aware he had stopped in a rift between a separate dimension and an open field within the Forest. His senses continued to distort along with his thoughts.

He would destroy.

Aomine did not want to destroy.

 _You will,_  a voice whispered tauntingly,  _because_   _it is the whole of your existence to._

He realized the voice was his own, the voice that gave him endless truths and saved him so many times from death, and gave in.

Yes, destruction felt good. It gave him purpose. He loved it. Doing nothing all the time was simply boring.

Why should Aomine care if anyone got hurt in the process? Honestly, he felt that the world should owe  _him_  for being weaker and easily breakable. He had power, so what was the point in not using it?

Destroy his annoying fan club. Destroy this shit mess of a forest. Destroy the Gillians who got in his way. Destroy the goddamn panther he, for some reason, recognized. Destroying things gave him a sense of fulfillment—a sense of happiness.

_The only one who can defeat me is me._

Destroydestroydestroydestroydestroydestroydestroyd estroydestroydestroydestroydestroydestroydestroyde stroydestroydestroydestroy—

One thought cleared the chaos that was his mind.

_Destroy the Tetsu that lied to you._


	6. Encounter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting without a beta because I lost communication with mine, ww...  
> Character spoilers for past 204q in the manga.

The first thought Kuroko Tetsuya had of the person before him was how Fate could sculpt the image of Death so young and life-like. It was a mockery of what would soon come to pass if it decided to stare you in the face. Kuroko woke up after a short dreamless sleep, and found himself looking at the figure of the dark clothed samaritan who had willingly come to his rescue with a mere weapon.

It—the youth’s voice was deep enough to confirm it was a he—had human features like his own, but for the hard glint in his eyes when he had turned to fight against Haizaki and the fact he could not find a Hollow hole or mask in sight.

Kuroko saw fair skin, short brown hair, and warm eyes. For whom the warmth was for, he did not know.

He had an inkling the smiling man was different from others he had met. His unaffected presence in Hueco Mundo proved he wasn’t a human (a normal human’s soul attracted the bottom of the Hollow food chain like bait) and the lack of a Hollow hole told him he wasn’t like Aomine or Kuroko.

 _'But was he strong?_  ' Kuroko and Chihiro thought, simultaneously.

 _'Why is he smiling like that at you_ ,' Chihiro added afterwards. ' _Creepy guy. I don't like it when people stare.'  
_

Kuroko ignored him as usual.

Questioning another’s strength was a habit he formed partly from his Aomine’s influence. Though, he had to admit, they had never thought of scouring Hueco Mundo for stronger beings besides Hollows. He should have thought of it sooner, before it was too late for Aomine.

Mentally berating himself, Kuroko knew if this person had taken on Haizaki alone, it was certain he was powerful enough to defeat the feline Adjuchas without any blows dealt. He glanced at the man to search for any unseen injuries, and noticed he was watching Kuroko in anticipation.

The stranger was crouched a distance from him, the black clothing he wore seemingly blending together with the shadows from the neck down. The only indication he himself wasn’t a shadow was the white obi tied around his waist , the brown of his weapon’s hilt and guard strung to his hip, and the badge strapped on the sleeve of his upper arm. He broke into a smile of relief when he saw Kuroko was awake and began speaking.

“I’m so glad you’re awake!”

“I-” Kuroko started to say.

“You can call me Shige, alright?” the stranger said over him.

Kuroko had no intention to speak to the stranger and was going to leave, until “Shige” had spoke before he could take his next breath. Shige’s dark head was turned to Kuroko, who was sitting against the massive trunk of a tree, and he tilted it nervously when he only received a blank look to his abrupt introduction.

“Usually,” Shige awkwardly cleared his throat, “after a person has said their name, you give yours in return. Please.” A polite character he was, though Kuroko could see it was a facade. He hadn’t forgotten the first words the other man had whispered to him in an overly familiar and relieved voice, or the casual drop of his own name.

“You already know me, don’t you?”

Shige made a startled noise at the back of his throat. “Uh,” he said intelligently.

They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence. Shige bit his lip nervously. He was probably thinking of ways to get out of his current situation.

“Do you have two as well?”

Shige jumped at the sound of Kuroko’s voice, but asked nonetheless, “Two of what?”

“Two names. Last and first, of course,” Kuroko said plainly.

The youth raised his brows at the simple question, obviously expecting him to ask something different. He considered him and ducked his head to the side to mutter quietly out of Kuroko’s hearing range. A pained expression flickered across his face for a split second, and he returned to his relaxed demeanor so quickly it must have been a trick of the light.

“Of course. I should have done that in the first place, but I guess I was just getting ahead of myself, huh? Sorry, K-” he paused, and continued abashedly. “Anyway, I’m Ogiwara Shigehiro, Shinigami and vice-captain of the 10th Meiko Division.”

He caught the hesitation when Ogiwara stopped himself from outright saying Kuroko's name, further adding to his suspicions, but Kuroko would confront him about it later.

 _'Suspicious and creepy,'_ Chihiro remarked, unnecessarily. 

Kuroko didn’t understand the last bit about divisions, but the word “Shinigami” was definitely familiar. He heard it often in side conversations Momoi had with other Hollows when she was scavenging for information. The term was always spat out in loathing and hatred, and sometimes in fear. It was no wonder Kuroko didn’t recognize him for who he was, because he had never seen a Shinigami in person.

“Death gods” were members of an organization who purified souls and Hollows lurking in the Human World. They also sent the worst of sinners to the inescapable Doors of Hell. Many times Hollows bragged about the crimes and cruel deeds they’d done in the Human World, and Kuroko had enough mind of his own to know those acts were the reason why they were in Hueco Mundo. But, there were many reasons why Hollows existed in Hueco Mundo, and killing and crime was only one out of several.

Perhaps Kuroko had sinned recently, and the Shinigami had noticed and come to take him away. He knew he had done unspeakable things he thought were worthy of eternal torment; none as cruel as murder, but ones Kuroko thought unforgivable if they were unveiled and brought to light. He wouldn’t have the chance to repent if he were caught now.

 _'Perhaps? Please, you know all too well what you've done,'_ Chihiro reprimanded.

 _Be quiet, please, I am trying to not be killed,_ Kuroko thought back.

“Ogiwara Shigehiro-kun?” Kuroko inquired of the Shinigami, careful to keep his tone neutral.

“Please, call me Shige.”

“...Ogiwara-kun, what happened to the Hollow you fought with when I was unconscious?” he asked. He didn’t say 'when you knocked me out' because getting on the bad side of a Shinigami was not his first priority at the moment. “You couldn’t have defeated him that easily?”

Ogiwara let out a chuckle while rubbing the back of his neck, sheepishly. “You shouldn’t overestimate my strength! As much as a person of my level could, I gave him enough warning to scare the overgrown cat away with his tail between his legs. Ah,” he gave a measuring glance over Kuroko’s bruised body, “that guy didn’t give you those, did he?”

“No. They were my own doing.”

“Huh.” Ogiwara backtracked. “Wait, so you hurt yourself on purpose? It’s none of my business but—”

Kuroko sent a cold look at the Shinigami’s assumption. “Let me rephrase. I got hurt on my own. It should not be in a Shinigami’s interest to be concerned over a mere Hollow’s accidents.”

The youth straightened up at his stony words. “You…”

Ogiwara stood up and walked to where Kuroko lay prone against the tree, his expression unreadable with the moonlight obscuring his face from his view. The Hollow found himself unable to move, his injuries still not yet completely healed. If he were with Aomine, the process would have been faster, but the dark skinned Hollow was somewhere far off yet close, as if he was flickering in and out of two places at once. The excessive pain had also dulled his emotional receptors. Aomine’s mind was crying out in wordless agony. His emotional distress must have been immense, because Kuroko could feel it roaring in his ears even with his sensors muffled.

All this he could not pay his full attention to because Ogiwara was now crouched in front of him with a fairly calloused hand placed loosely on the hilt of his weapon. His bright eyes were gazing sternly into his light blue one, and Ogiwara made to move toward him.

Kuroko closed his eye as he waited for the worst to happen, but instead of a finishing blow, he felt his hand being gripped in the other’s. He blinked to see Ogiwara raise them to show the boy Hollow the decapitated horn he had forgotten was still in his grasp.

“You mean to tell me this,” he roughly gestured to their clasped hands with his free one, “was also an accident?”

The Shinigami sounded furious, but Kuroko could tell his anger was not directed at him. The only ones who got angry on his behalf were Aomine and Momoi, yet he and Ogiwara had just recently met. Kuroko almost had not asked for his name upon waking up, preferring to keep his savior’s name anonymous in case he was an enemy.

Ogiwara was a strange person, but maybe he was only strange to him in particular.

 _Creep,_ Chihiro hummed.

“It was sliced off in the process of running from Haizaki, but I see no reason for your anger, Ogiwara-kun,” Kuroko replied. “You do not act the way I would think a Shinigami would be to someone like me.”

“What do you mean by that? Do I look that heartless to you?” Ogiwara asked exasperatedly. “Should I not care if someone is hurt in front of me?”

“But I am a Hollow.”

_'And a liar.'_

“And a Hollow’s heart should not be damaged like this,” Ogiwara shot back. He placed his other hand on top of Kuroko’s clutched horn and brought them close to the boy Hollow’s bare, pale chest. “If you lose this piece of your heart, it’ll be gone forever, you know.”

“Forgive me,” Kuroko began unsteadily, the pressure of the Shinigami’s surprisingly warm hands near his chest a slight distraction, “but I think you are mistaking my mask for something else.”

Ogiwara made the same expression he showed before when Kuroko had said something he didn’t completely understand: head tilted, eyebrows raised, except without the confused smile. Kuroko felt like he was being seen as a child who had told an adult some gibberish nonsense.

He noticed now that Ogiwara appeared to be about the same height as Aomine, so looking down on Kuroko was accurate, at least. The fingers at his chest didn’t help his embarrassment either, but he was certain of his knowledge. After all, he had spent most of his time with the most accurate network of information on four legs, Momoi Satsuki.

The Shinigami spoke, breaking into his thoughts. “You’re serious, aren’t you.” It was more of a statement than a question.

“Of course,” he affirmed. Kuroko had not done anything to make the other think otherwise.

Ogiwara sighed. “I didn’t think you would be that ignorant of the topic of the heart. I figured things would change, but not to this extent.” He squinted at Kuroko, hoping to find something in his expressionless face. “I’m not sure if it’s a Hollow trait or just an occurrence that happens to certain people. It’s too uncanny to say it’s a coincidence.”

“What would that be?” Kuroko asked, voice low. The youth was acting ambiguous about a trait he apparently lacked. He didn’t take to being spoken of like so. No one really liked having their flaws pointed out so blatantly.

“It’s just the lack of emotion some of you Hollows tend to not have or know of,” Ogiwara explained, brows drawn in thought. “Where do you think your emotions are stored?”

“Obviously in our mind and brain, Ogiwara-kun,” Kuroko immediately replied. “But, if there is another place I am unaware of, please enlighten me. Although, I could attest your knowledge with a reliable source of my own.”

Ogiwara blinked, temporarily stupefied at his seething bluntness. After a moment of visibly processing what Kuroko said, he let go of Kuroko’s hand and brought it to cover his own face. His shoulders shook and the Hollow became alarmed, thinking maybe the youth was having a seizure of some sort.

“Ogiwara-kun?” he quietly, carefully inquired in case any loud noise would cause more fits.

Gasps escaped from the hunched figure, and Ogiwara finally peered through the gaps of his fingers to show the crinkle in the corner of his eyes and the amusement of all things dancing in them. The shaking of his shoulders were from laughing at him. Kuroko could not find anything he said to be funny and he frowned to show his confusion.

“Ah, um,” a few more gasps and chuckles, “don’t make that face I was just thinking—” a snort “—you and that redhead have the same reaction, is all.”

A mature peal of giggles took over and the Hollow waited for it to subside to address the Shinigami again. “I know of no redhead you speak of. It would satisfy me if you would tell me what it is you find so hilarious about two strangers’ similarities.”

After several attempts of catching his regular human breathing pattern, Ogiwara sat back more or less composed and placed his weapon in a comfortable position at his side, a hand relaxed on it casually and his other elbow on a raised knee and a hand propped under his chin. There was nothing unique about the posture, but a trigger within Kuroko was flipped.

He saw an image overlap the Shinigami: the dreary surroundings faded into a lush field of tall grasses; the crystalline trees transformed into an earthy brown and pink petals scattered from healthy branches above; and the caved in ceiling transitioned into a sky a tint darker than Kuroko’s hair.

A warm wind blew soft breezes to ruffle the Shinigami’s short brown hair and a toothy grin graced his slightly younger features. Several white pink petals had fallen to rest on his head and shoulders, as if he had waited for Kuroko for a while. He was wearing his black Shinigami uniform lacking a badge. Round bright eyes focused on Kuroko, spreading their warmth into his own.

The younger Ogiwara stretched a hand toward him and spoke to him animatedly. The wind carried away the sound of his voice, but he could read one word upon his lips.

" _Tetsuya._ " _  
_

With his outstretched hand, he gestured for Kuroko to approach. Teenage Ogiwara determinedly raised his weapon out in front of him and proceeded to unsheathe it in demonstration.

The reflection of the sword’s silver blade blinded Kuroko for a moment, and the vision disappeared. Kuroko was back to himself in Hueco Mundo with the current Ogiwara watching him with a confused expression.

"Hey, you okay there? You kind of just spaced out for a minute," he said in concern.

In a rare moment of shock, Kuroko could only stare back at him with a widened eye and mouth slightly ajar. Never had he experienced those sensations. The feel of the wind caressing his skin and the moist smell of rich soil and the healthy fragrance of unknown trees were overwhelming for a Hollow used to the sandy landscape and dim moon glowing across the sky in bland shades of gray and deep blue.

Kuroko wondered if the Shinigami had a power to cause hallucinations and illusions. Asking was certainly tempting him to for an early death, so he chose to to circle around to the first issue. He addressed the nostalgia Kuroko had felt since he had first laid eyes on Ogiwara.

“Have we…?” Kuroko gulped, his emotional mask cracking at the thought of potentially discovering an important clue to his lost identity after so long. “Have we met before, Ogiwara-kun?”

All expression on the Shinigami's face was wiped clean, creating a blank mask Kuroko knew was placed to keep a strong reaction inside. Kuroko judged from Ogiwara’s previous episode of humor he was best suited to bubbling laughter and smiles.

The Shinigami answered him, diminishing his hope. “No. You just reminded me of someone. It’s a coincidence you both share the same name.”

He was correct when he heard Ogiwara say his name when they first met, and then in the vision his first name. Disappointment clouded his mind and he felt he could cry. For a moment Kuroko had a hope, the tiniest hope, maybe he would finally learn who he was through the key presented before him as a Shinigami.

“Ogiwara-kun, did this person happen to look like me?” Kuroko asked, quietly.

Ogiwara kept his eyes to the side, avoiding his eye. “I don’t remember, Kuroko,” Ogiwara said, tiredly. “It was so long ago.”

“But in the vision,” Kuroko began but stopped himself. “Never mind.”

Ogiwara glanced back at him. “Vision…?” he trailed off in confusion.

“It was nothing.”

Ogiwara placed his hands on Kuroko’s shoulders and forced him to look at the Shinigami. “Kuroko, what did you see?” he urgently asked, as if his life depended on the answer.

Kuroko felt fear at the sudden change in the Shinigami’s attitude. Was he going to be killed if he did not speak?

“I-I saw a younger Ogiwara-kun and me,” he gulped, his throat gone dry, “sitting under a tree with pink petals…”

“Cherry blossoms,” Ogiwara nodded, urging him to go on.

“I know.” How did he know that? “And you were speaking excitedly and said my first name,” Kuroko slowly continued, “in a field of tall grass and a sky like my hair…”

“Your first name?” the brunet asked, voice suspiciously quiet.

“Tetsuya,” Kuroko answered, distractedly. His memory was escaping him. “You looked like you were waiting for me with petals on your shoulders and hair, and you wore no badge as you do now. Ogiwara-kun was demonstrating how to unsheathe a sword and the vision ended there.”

He heard Ogiwara draw in a sharp breath. Kuroko had mostly been looking down at the horn in his hand while speaking but now he dared a glimpse to see Ogiwara’s reaction.

The Shinigami wore an expression of disbelief, eyes wide and mouth parted. His eyes shined brightly under the moonlight.

“How do you know that?” Ogiwara whispered, clutching Kuroko’s shoulders tightly. “No one knows about that day besides me and him.” He let go of Kuroko and dropped his hands to his lap.

After a long silence, Ogiwara finally spoke up.

“How, how could you have become a Hollow?” he shouted, angrily. “Did something happen in your human life so that you became this way? Did you die alone, Kuroko?”

Kuroko was taken aback. What was the other man talking about?

“Ogiwara-kun, I do not know or remember what you speak of. I have no memories before the separation of myself and my companion,” Kuroko replied, puzzled.

His words gave the Shinigami pause. “What companion?” he asked, suspicious.

Kuroko hesitated giving out the identity of his friend, but determined it would do no harm.

“My traveling friend, Aomine Daiki.”

He saw recognition alight in Ogiwara’s face at the name. His reaction confused Kuroko even more. Ogiwara somehow knew them when they did not know him.

“So, you two managed to find each other again,” Ogiwara muttered, unhappily. “Should have known after meeting Akashi immediately after I came here.”

“Ogiwara-kun,” Kuroko addressed him with alarm and urgency, “how do you know of us? Do you know who I...who Aomine-kun and I are? If you do, please, I beg of you, please tell me.”

Ogiwara shut his eyes and pressed his lips into a thin line. Reluctantly, he opened his eyes to gaze directly into Kuroko’s wide blue one.

“Yes, I know of your pasts, but not of what happened between your, er, ends and our meeting," the Shinigami admitted with difficulty. "If you don’t remember, then those memories will stay blank until you do." 

“Then, can you at least tell us of what you do know of us? Grant me this,” Kuroko pleaded, reaching out a hand to desperately grasp his sleeve. He had to know. "Please, Shige."

Ogiwara sighed and gave in to him. “You know I can’t say no when you do that. But what I will tell you won’t be pleasant,” he warned, removing Kuroko’s hand from his arm.

“Trust me,” Kuroko assured with a small bitter smile, “I am a Hollow and I have seen much that is not pleasant.”

“Oh, I almost forgot about that.” Ogiwara gave a pained smile in return.

The Shinigami settled himself at a comfortable distance from Kuroko. He made a few movements with his hands and babbled some words Kuroko didn’t understand. Opaque walls formed and surrounded them in a rectangular barrier.

“This is only to make sure we’re not interrupted for story time,” Ogiwara explained after seeing Kuroko’s wondering expression.

He cleared his throat and set his sword across his lap. Ogiwara made sure to keep eye contact with Kuroko to assure he was listening.

“I feel it may be a bit abrupt, but you should know your former cause of death first. It makes all the rest seem like fluff and butterflies after finding out. Is that okay, Kuroko?”

“Yes, I understand.”

“Good,” he grinned.

Kuroko could see how forced his smile was. He realized how fortunate and ill-fated he was, to forget the bad and the wonderful memories. 

“You know the vision you had of the younger us in the field and the cherry blossom trees?” Ogiwara began. Kuroko nodded. “Well, it was a memory and very real. The reason why I remember that day so well is because,” he inhaled and exhaled deeply before continuing on, “that was the day you died.”

“Was I ill with something?” Kuroko asked. He wasn’t quite sure if the Shinigami would spare any details.

“I wish it was as simple as that. Then I could know your death was inevitable,” Ogiwara said, bitterly. “But, no. You were killed. An accident with a rogue Hollow and a captain was the reason for your death. I...I'm sorry, Kuroko. Forgive me for not being there to protect you," he croaked.

Ogiwara lifted his sword hand, watching as it shook from painful memories. He fiercely gripped his wrist in his other hand to stop the trembling, not realizing his whole body was shaking. He swore, seeing this. It was a pitiful sight, the Shinigami struggling to keep himself composed to continue speaking. Ogiwara resembled Aomine so much, dealing with suffering Kuroko could not understand unless he had a psychic link. He could do nothing but wait impassively for him to calm down.

"Sorry. I don't know what got over me," Ogiwara said once he got control of himself. "Where were we?"

"The reason for my death."

He laughed, tiredly. "Ah, yes, the worst part. You were attacked and died in the process of subduing the Hollow."

“You mean to say I had no way of protecting myself?” Kuroko asked.

“No, you were more than capable, even though you didn’t have a seated position. Your shikai was beautiful, Kuroko,” he casually praised, and switched to seriousness in the next breath. “It was the captain involved who made you hesitate from properly reacting in such a situation. Possession is such a terrible, manipulative power.”

Kuroko was concerned. Even he knew himself to be more level headed than most. The captain must have been someone close or important to make him waver in getting the job done properly.

"Who was the captain?" Kuroko asked, curiously.

From the way Ogiwara spat out 'captain', it was a person he disliked greatly. Ogiwara did not seem like the type of person to hate someone for a few minor things. Something major must have happened to make him say it in such loathing. Something major like Kuroko's death.

"You already know him, just like I already know you," Ogiwara said, ruthlessly treading on. "In fact, you should know him very well."

No, it couldn't be.

"The prodigious Captain of the fifth Touo Division—"

Ogiwara was lying. How could he have been the one to kill him? They were partners—

"—the Ace of the Goutei Thirteen—"

 _'Karma's a bitch,'_   Chihiro cut in helpfully, having already predicted the identity of Kuroko's previous life's killer after staying silent and listening to their exchange.

"—your former superior, Aomine Daiki."

 


	7. Mono Prisoner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The answer to some truths, and as the saying goes, all is well that (does not) end well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Isn't nice to see me coming back after this forever long hiatus? No? I've gone through a long journey to get to this point as I was on a serious writing block for this fic, my first ever AU writing attempt. Well, here's some action, action, action as an apology.  
> 

“No, how could such a thing be possible?” Kuroko stood up and began to back away in confused panic. “Aomine-kun and I...we were born from the same being. Having a deeply involved history before our birth could not happen.”

“I can never lie to you, Kuroko. At least, not for long.” Ogiwara met his eye steadily. “I could never lie to you after the last time I saw you. That time, it resulted in your death. I can never forgive myself nor atone for it.”

Kuroko’s back ran into the barrier wall hard. He slid down slowly until he was sitting with his legs tucked close to his chest. It was unexpectedly hard to breathe after hearing it. Shock could not have made him this breathless.

“Ogiwara…kun…?”

No, this sensation was something else entirely. Not only was it difficult to breathe, his head felt as if it were compressing in on itself. It _hurt_. This sensation was an exact replication of Kuroko’s first taste of self awareness as a new whole being.

_‘ **dEstROy ThEM—!’**_

_‘The only one who can defeat me is me.’_

“K-Kuroko? Do your wounds still ache?” Ogiwara’s concerned voice barely registered in his ears past the distorted phrases repeating behind his lids and in his mind. “Was it that much of a shock?”

“O-...Shige...leave now!” Kuroko gritted his teeth through the pain to warn him away. “This feels too much like when I and Aomine-kun first separated into two...you...will get hurt if you are close.”

“I don’t understand,” he cracked open his eye to peek at Ogiwara’s stricken face, “what’s happening to you? Are you being possessed?”

“Something...like it?” he managed to huff out. A laugh resounded in his mind. “Chihiro…” he muttered low.

Ogiwara straightened with a determined expression. “Possession, huh. I've been preparing for something like this all these years.”

“Wha…?”

“Stay put right there. I’m going to step out of the barrier and do my magic. Let’s hope this works.”

Kuroko did not know what Ogiwara would do. All he _could_ do was wait and bear with it as he clutched his head and drew his knees to his chest in a fetal position on his side. Thinking was the only distraction left at this point.

_Aomine-kun..._

It was him. A happening might have occurred. It could have occurred, yet no image of bloody disaster came to him as a vivid vision. Maybe it was emotional stress? But the thought of ‘destruction’ was sent to him instead. He had never heard those phrases uttered from the dark-skinned Hollow’s mouth.

They alarmed him. He and Aomine were partners, and any signs of hatred were not present last he checked.

“How are you feeling, Kuroko?”

He slid his eye to Ogiwara, who had withdrawn from the yellow, opaque barrier a few paces. The Shinigami had called to him from his spot with his sword unsheathed and gripped with the tip pointed vertically downwards. Kuroko had no idea how to operate a sword, but he instinctively knew how the brunet held it was not how it should be. A weapon as sharp as a sword should be pointed at an enemy, not harmlessly at the earth.

“Alive. Barely.” Kuroko winced at the sharp pain his jaw triggered. “What are you doing?”

“Freeing you of your monsters,” Ogiwara replied, eyes glazed over in concentration. Under his breath he was humming and muttering words as his free hand was changing movements rapidly. “I’ve never done this for a Hollow before. There might be side effects.”

“That is worrying.” The blue-haired Hollow had no qualms about dying except for leaving Aomine and Momoi behind. “Please make...chances...of success...100 percent.”

Ogiwara grinned with mirth as he slashed his sword across the ground around the barrier. “You leave a tough case, Kuroko, but it isn’t entirely impossible!”

With a wordless shout, he thrust his sword into the earth.

A humming sound reverberated across the clearing in an explosive wave as a red, thrumming light rose from the marks the Shinigami had drawn. The light encased the barrier and Kuroko was forced to the ground. Struggling to open his eye, he saw gravity only affected the area inside the opaque walls. Ogiwara was panting outside it, the power or spell he had used apparently exhausting him. Clutching the hilt of his now glowing sword, the brunet rose from his kneeling position and limped to the Hollow.

“Ogiwara-kun...what…?”

“I’m only restraining your movements if the thing inside you decides to put up a fight,” Ogiwara explained breathlessly as he arrived in front of him inside the barrier. The restraining spell appeared to have no affect on the Shinigami. “It will all be over soon, I promise.”

_‘Aw, hell no.’_

_Now you show up_ , Kuroko thought to the uninvited guest in his head. _You are late. How will you escape now?_

_‘That’s the thing. I don’t know how.’_

Chihiro sounded panicked for once, which left Kuroko bemused and equally satisfied. He did not totally mind Chihiro in his head and had become attached to them at some point, but he did not want to deal with them for his whole life. There was also the several incidences where Chihiro had taken control of his body and started fights between him and Aomine he could not completely clear up after they had forgiven each other.

Overall, Chihiro was harmless, minus the temporary possession over his body.

Privacy and his own mentality were at stake on this questionable samaritan of a Shinigami who had the uncertain power to rid him of this persona possessing him. If Kuroko had to rethink all this, he would say he was insane to agree. But regrets were for later after all was said and done, and he was in no position to go back on his word.

“I trust you...for now.” Kuroko released all tension in his body. Chihiro had gone silent.

“Alright.” Ogiwara nodded above him and set his sword in front of his chest horizontally, nearly an exact image as in the recent vision of his past. “Let’s get to it.”

Holding his sword in position in one hand, he traced two fingers from where the dull edge of the glowing blade was inserted, to where it ended in a curved point. As he was tracing the blade, the light faded into his fingers and hand until it was glowing with the same eerie burnt red color. He sheathed his sword, keeping his gaze on his glowing hand, and knelt before Kuroko.

“Now, normally, I would use my sword to exorcise the possessor, but my blade would probably kill you.” Ogiwara grinned down at him apologetically. “So, I’ll use my hands instead. For a human or Soul, I would use this method to pull whatever was possessing them out of their mouth or chest since that way it would be safer and closer to the heart.” His glowing hand hovered over Kuroko's lips and then his chest as he was explaining. “But you’re a Hollow, and a hole to the heart has already been opened for me, see?”

Kuroko immediately knew what he was referring to. He glanced down his chest to where his Hollow hole gaped in the middle of his abdomen. The blue-haired Hollow looked up at the Shinigami questioningly.

“This glow makes it so I can reach into your ‘heart’ and ‘mind’ easier without physically hurting you. It’s like a target of sorts telling me where the source of your soul is.” Ogiwara shrugged his shoulders when he saw Kuroko’s raised eyebrow. “Don’t ask me how, since spell theory isn’t what I excelled in back at the Academy.”

“Continue.” It took some effort to whisper the word with the pounding in his head increasing in tempo.

“Okay.” The brunet gave him a meaningful look. “I know your strength, so I’ll hold you down.”

With one arm braced against the Hollow’s chest, Ogiwara inserted his hand within the hole in Kuroko’s abdomen. Kuroko watched as it went in slowly. To his disbelief, it did not halt to touch the ground, but kept going until the Shinigami’s arm was in elbow deep. It felt uncomfortable but not painful.

“Wow, that’s kind of a surprise! Oh, I think I touched something. An arm maybe?” Ogiwara kept his upbeat attitude despite the fact that his own limb had disappeared in what appeared to be some sort of portal to an alternate dimension he called the ‘heart’. “You might want to grit your teeth for this next part. This is when it really starts to hurt.”

Though Kuroko could not feel anything physically, he breathed in short pants and his vision blurred. Cold sweat and hot flashes rushed across his body unexpectedly, and his body itched to escape. It was torture being unable to move. The metaphor ‘to be emotionally touched by (someone’s) actions’ had become reality.

“I’m going to be pulling now. Brace yourself for some intense pain.”

Kuroko barely nodded before colors and stars flashed across his eye and sharp, needle-like sensations pricked across his general torso area. His lungs would not properly respond to him, an invisible weight holding them down.

_‘S-stop! I want to stay! Kuroko, stop him!’_

“It hurts—!”

_‘It hurts!’_

Chihiro was screaming in his mind, so powerful his ears were ringing. Kuroko almost didn’t recognize his own moans of pain if he did not feel them in his dried throat and see himself writhing in Ogiwara’s pained eyes.

“I’m sorry, so so sorry, Kuroko. It’ll be over soon, okay, so please endure it.” Ogiwara’s brows were drawn close together and he had his eyes closed tightly as he apologized profusely. Sweat—tears?—dripped down his jaw.

Kuroko found the strength to brush his fingers over the arm that was braced against him. “I’ll be fine,” he weakly assured.

Another wave of nausea hit him, and he had to bite his lip to keep from crying out. Endure, endure, endure, he chanted to himself. Once it was all over, he would be free.

“Pulling out this thing is going to be difficult. It doesn’t seem to want to leave.” Ogiwara cast an uncomfortable glance at him. “I’ll have to sit on you in a pretty weird position.”

The small Hollow had no strength to nod, so he slowly blinked his consent. The Shinigami nodded. He let go of his chest and maneuvered his legs to straddle Kuroko with his free hand gripping his arm tightly. He pulled upward with a strained grunt.

To Kuroko’s fascination and disgust, a pale arm appeared on the end of Ogiwara’s hand from his stomach. An arm, a shoulder, a neck, a bare masculine chest, and onward emerged until a whole body revealed itself. How it managed to come out of him was a mystery and could only be explained while watching it happen. It practically was like a portal originating from his abdomen in a grotesque fashion.

Once Ogiwara hefted the body to the side, Kuroko was no longer under pressure, and he oddly felt empty and listless.

Above him, Ogiwara wavered from side to side dizzily. The glow from his hand disappeared and, to Kuroko's dismay, the brunet collapsed on him with a flop. Finding some strength had returned, Kuroko pushed the Shinigami away and gently placed him on his back.

A gasp snapped his head toward the body.

The body, a male he presumed, sat with a hand clasped to their heaving chest. Half long, straight pale gray hair sprouted from the top of their head under the remnants of a crown-like plate. Pale wiry limbs and a thin chest resembled that of a human with exception to the hole in the center of their chest.

This thing which had possessed Kuroko for the longest time strongly resembled he and Aomine in appearance as Vasto Lorde, he concluded with faint bewilderment.

“Who are you?” he asked the unknown being.

After a moment of steadying their breathing, or rather, getting used to breathing, they answered bitterly.

“How could you not recognize me, Phantom? Me, who knows all your secrets?”

Kuroko widened his eye in realization. “You are...Chihiro?”

“Spot on.” Chihiro flashed a wry grin. It did not reach their eyes. They were a shade darker than their hair and as blank as Hueco Mundo’s sky. There was nothing in the gaze that narrowed at him with reproach.

“So this is how you look like,” Kuroko said, resigned and relieved to finally be freed of the other being. “This is good. You can finally be your own person.”

“Thank the clingy Shinigami for that. I don’t know why I was protesting in the first place anyway.” Chihiro stretched their arms experimentally. “It feels good to move my own body.”

“What will you do now?”

Chihiro paused in the act of wiggling their toes and glanced at him. “I had a scenario thought up that if I ever got a body, I’d use it to kill you.”

“Oh.” Brutal and direct as always.

“But you’ve been okay, tolerating me and not desperately searching for ways to get rid of me. That is, up until now,” Chihiro pointed out. Kuroko broke eye contact sheepishly. They did have a point, but it was not enough of a reason to kill him. “I’d be a pretty ungrateful bastard to let the host that graciously nurtured me die by my own hands.”

“So you do have some morals,” Kuroko remarked without thinking.

“Rude.” Chihiro tossed their head indignantly. “And to answer your question, I’ll leave you and Aomine alone. Then, I won’t have to be in debt to you two.”

“Of course. You seem like the type to do that sort of thing.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not doing this to be nice.” Chihiro rose on shaky knees to brush off the dirt on their body. They turned to the smaller Hollow to point in challenge. “Next time we meet, I’ll definitely use you as a base to get stronger. Hopefully that guy isn’t still around for me to do it.”

“What do you mean, ‘still’?” Kuroko asked, slightly confused by his wording.

“You seriously didn’t get the memo from earlier? You should know already that he’s a fucking time bomb.” Kuroko shook his head. Chihiro raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “The guy wants to kill you, Kuroko. He’s ready to abandon you to satisfy his destructive urges.”

“I…” Kuroko frantically searched for any indication of animosity from Aomine. “I do not recall that ever happening with Aomine-kun.”

“Geez, you’re hopeless, you know that? They say love makes one blind.” Chihiro closed their eyes and sighed. They opened them to glare at Kuroko. “I’ll have to refresh your memory, then.”

Kuroko warily scooted closer to Ogiwara’s unconscious form as Chihiro neared and stumbled to kneel in front of him.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Chihiro snapped, reaching out a hand to grip Kuroko’s head. “I’m testing out a theory I have, since you seem to always have amnesia regarding Aomine’s other side.”

Chihiro brought his head closer, and Kuroko closed his eye in wait. Their foreheads touched, and a whine droned in his ears.

Dark images, soundless and colorless, all but for the bright splash of fresh blood flitted behind his lid. Another color, faint in some but beacon-like in others, bore into his mind’s retina. Two dots of electric blue blazed from the bloodied, familiar form of Aomine, a mangled corpse beyond recognition in one hand and an elongated tongue licking the darkening stains on his clawed fingers of the other.

_“You look tasty, Tetsu.”_

Canines shone sharp as the figure who looked like his partner grinned wolfishly, _hungrily_ at him in the memory as he reached out hypnotically with clawed hands.

_‘He’s a monster...a monster in a friend’s skin. I’ve shown you Aomine’s other suppressed nature._

_Do you get it now, Kuroko? Is it coming back to you?'_

“Come back to me, Kuroko. That’s it, breathe slowly.”

His eyelid fluttered open to gaze into Ogiwara’s worried face as he was gasping for breath.

“Where is...Chihiro?” Kuroko asked, raising himself on his elbows.

“If you mean that thing we took out of you, then they’re gone,” Ogiwara said as he quickly searched his surroundings. “When I came to, you were collapsed and muttering something about being ‘tasty’ in your sleep. Were you dreaming about food?”

He recalled the shocking memories Chihiro had given him and murmured, “Not quite.”

“Huh.” Ogiwara did not comment on his bitter reply. “It’s a good thing there haven’t been any Hollows around our general area. Usually the Menos Forest is swarming with them, but they all seem to be attracted to something else today.”

A boom and a drawn out howl sounded off in the distance behind them. They turned in alarm at the power it emanated. The aftershock was enough to reach them and disturb the dirt and grass in the clearing.

“That doesn’t look good.” The brunet lips turned down in a grim frown. A hand gripped the hilt of his sword in apprehension. “This strange behavior in Hollow activity is enough to warrant Soul Society’s attention.” He patted Kuroko’s shoulder firmly. “Stay inside the barrier. I’m going to check what all the commotion is about.”

Without waiting for a reply, Ogiwara took off and disappeared among the tall branches, leaving Kuroko alone.

“It’s not like I can leave here on my own,” Kuroko said to air, pressing his helmeted head against the yellow-opaque walls. “Excitable people move at such a fast pace.”

Another boom startled him out of his hazy mood. It was not the time to doze off and sleep. Aomine could be in pain wherever he was, and Kuroko needed to be by his side to ease most of it.

If he could just use his sensing ability, then…

…?

He could not feel Aomine’s presence. In fact, he felt a void when he tried to activate his ability. Why did it not work?

_“I have a theory...”_

_“...you have amnesia about Aomine—”_

_“I’ve shown you Aomine’s other side…”_

…!

It was entirely possible his power to read Aomine was due to Chihiro’s presence and psychic connection to the Hollow. It would explain how Chihiro was able to show his lost memories easily and communicate to him in his mind.

_Chihiro, what are you? Are you like us?_

Silence answered him. No one would answer but silence now that he was gone.

Kuroko suppressed a shudder from the sensation of cold that had taken over his body, though the barrier kept wind from seeping in. The one eyed Hollow was utterly isolated without the warmth of another body near to comfort him.

“It is lonely.”

He huddled closer within himself, clutching his bare arms to his chest over his barely beating heart. There was certainly blood within his veins, his many past wounds had told him that. But it would not move vigorously unless he needed to reproduce the appropriate amount to function. Even now, when he was shivering, it beat irregularly every once in a while as was normal.

The proportions of most Hollows did not allow them to form ‘beating hearts’ with flowing blood. Whether they were bone or slime, a regular Hollow could not have a functioning, blood pumping organ.

He asked himself what were he and Aomine, and even Chihiro. They were a few of the rumored Vasto Lorde who inhabited humanoid forms, Momoi had decided. Was evolution attempting to tell them that the ultimate, powerful form of a Hollow would be in the shape of a human, the weak and most powerless species?

The memory of electric blue eyes resurfaced in answer.

Kuroko knew power; it was in the shape of his partner, barely contained and brimming within the dark-skinned, muscled flesh of Aomine Daiki.

A sharp ripping shook his eardrums. The one-eyed Hollow did not realize the barrier had shattered until the translucent shards showered over him and dissipated the moment they made contact with the ground.

Before he could react, whatever had easily destroyed Ogiwara’s barrier seized him by his leg and roughly tossed him a distance away. Kuroko groaned as he hit the trunk of thick tree hard and limply collapsed at the base.

A low growl snapped his eye open, and he frantically glanced up to see a swirling vortex of dark energy encasing a barely discernable human figure as they slowly lumbered close.

Seeing as Kuroko had nowhere to run, surrounded on all sides, he accepted his fate. He would die here without apologizing to Ogiwara, asking Momoi more about the Human World, or saying goodbye to Aomine.

"...stroy...Tets...uuuu? Tet...Te...ts....Tetsroy? Feel....good...Me, me, me, me..."

The raspy voice drew his attention to the figure who had stopped within arm's length to sniff the air. Now that he got a good look, it had piercing blue eyes that shone bright through the dark, writhing mass. Kuroko froze, recognizing them, recalling all the instances he had encountered the exact creature in similar situations.

How had he forgotten?

This stone cold fear that ran through him was utterly unforgettable and potent. It was a fear someone received when betrayal from a close unsuspecting friend was afoot.

Kuroko was terrified of this creature of unimaginable power who had been barely contained inside the weak-willed friend that was Aomine Daiki. 

 ****He had carelessly hurt him. Bit him even, like a rabid dog. One time, Kuroko was on the urge of dying until someone strong on par with Aomine had showed up and restrained him with their power.

All Kuroko could recall of them was their lethal sharp tail protecting him and a flash of shining gold.

Kuroko realized, different from the kind stranger, that Chihiro was unintentionally trying to protect him in their own way from the traumatic memories to extend his survival and well being. He was grateful for Chihiro and his unknown savior.

Chihiro and the stranger were gone, and Kuroko was forced to deal with the heavy truth alone. The oppressing creature of powerful magnitude was not the Aomine he once knew. Or perhaps, this was how he was all along, only Kuroko had ignored it to sleep better at night.

Kuroko felt tears spill down his cheeks as he gazed at Aomine muttering nonsensical phrases and blankly staring at Kuroko in self-conflict. 

"How could I let this happen to you, Aomine-kun?" he sobbed as he stretched out a hand to caress Aomine's face. 

"Me...me, me, me, me, defeat, me, me, me..."

How could he hurt all the people he loved, turning a blind eye to their pain and sorrow? Had he let the irony get the better of him for an excuse?

"Defeat, me, me, me, me...defeat, Tets... me?"

Kuroko smiled sadly through his tears, wiping at the wetness on Aomine's cheeks.

As he had learned in the past, eyes were the windows to the soul. As he had learned from Ogiwara recently, there were multiple places for the soul as well.

"Yes, I will put your fear to sleep, now, as you wish. Sweet dreams, Aomine-kun," Kuroko assured.

With the technique Kuroko had practiced to perfection, he sharply thrust his fingers into Aomine's exposed eye, a mirror to his own. He took away the power of half of an important sense, lessening Aomine's power by an exceptional amount. He had allowed Aomine one remaining eye, because Kuroko would never stoop so low as to forever blind his friend.

To halt Aomine's healing, Kuroko replaced in Aomine's eye socket Hueco Mundo's darkness he had specialized in gathering to create his one-of-a-kind  _Cero_ he stored in his unseeing left eye. He never showed the technique to Aomine, in fear that one day Aomine would betray him and decide to kill him, such as this moment.

As Aomine stumbled back and clutched at his face in a heartrending scream, Kuroko swallowed Aomine's eye within his body for safe keeping. He felt his body hum at the power such a small piece of Aomine gave him.

With renewed strength, Kuroko turned his back on Aomine and fled with a speed he was surprised he had stored in him.

The Hollow's cries behind him resounded on deaf ears as he hurried his way out of the Forest of Menos, never to return to his friend's side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Or, at least, that was how it was supposed to go.


End file.
